Houser v. Harris

44 S.W.2d 784
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 24, 1931
DocketNo. 4096
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 44 S.W.2d 784 (Houser v. Harris) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Houser v. Harris, 44 S.W.2d 784 (Tex. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

LEVY, J.

(after stating the case as above).

The question arising is the simple one of whether or not in the circumstances the appellant can be deprived of the privilege of being sued in the county of his domicile. The statute expressly declares, and makes it the fundamental right of the defendant, that the venue of the action shall he at the residence of the party sued, unless there is some statutory provision to the contrary. An exception, enumerated in the statute, fixes the venue of an action at the residence of either defendant, where two or more defendants to the action shall reside in different counties. Exception 4, and also exception 29a of article 1995, R. S. The limitations placed upon the above exceptions to the statute are that the party who is a nonresident of the county in which the action is brought must be a proper or a necessary party to the plaintiff’s action. Rush v. Bishop, 60 Tex. 177; Holloway v. Blum, 60 Tex. 625; Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Mangum, 68 Tex. 342, 4 S. W. 617; Cobb v. Bar ber, 92 Tex. 309, 47 S. W. 963; Behrens Drug Co. v. Hamilton, 92 Tex. 284, 48 S. W. 5; Fox v. Cone, 118 Tex. 212, 13 S.W.(2d) 65; and other cases. Therefore, it certainly follows that persons who are not proper or necessary parties to the action cannot, as respecting venue, be sued out of nor denied the privilege of being sued in the county of his residence, and the dominating venue named in the exceptions cannot prevail. In the light of the principle set out, Can the appellant, as respecting venue, be regarded as properly joined as the codefendant with Ed Sproles in the plaintiff’s suit? With reference to the joinder of defendants in cases of pure negligence, as is the character of the case here, the rule is general and invariable that any and all of the joint tort-feasors may be joined as party-defendant at the will of the plaintiff. 38 Cyc. p. 490; 47 C. J. p. 70; 1 Sutherland on Damages (3d Ed.) § 140; 6 Thompson on Negligence (Ed. 1905) § 7435; Middleton v. Pipkin (Tex. Civ. App.) 56 S. W. 240, 241; Loftus v. Maxey, 73 Tex. 246, 11 S. W. 272; Wolf v. Perryman, 82 Tex. 112, 17 S. W. 772; Raymond v. Yarrington, 96 Tex. 443, 72 S. W. 580, 73 S. W. 800, 62 L. R. A. 962, 97 Am. St. Rep. 914; Markham v. Navigation Co., 73 Tex. 247, 11 S. W. 131; Mercantile Bank & Trust Co. v. Schuhart, 115 Tex. 114, 277 S. W. 621; and other cases. But the rule is equally as established and invariable that there cannot, as respecting venue, be proper joinder of several persons as defendants in an action for pure tort where the persons committing the tort were acting, not jointly upon concert of action or by simultan[786]*786eous wrongful acts or with community of legal responsibility, but separately and for themselves alone without any concert or without legal obligation with the others. 29 Cyc. p. 565; 38 Cyc. p. 484; 47 C. J. § 147, p. 71; Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Mangum, 68 Tex. 342, 4 S. W. 617; Behrens v. Brice, 52 Tex. Civ. App. 221, 113 S. W. 782; Jackson v. Pipe Line Co. (Tex. Civ. App.) 33 S.W.(2d) 540; McCarty v. Ash (Tex. Civ. App.) 18 S. W.(2d) 765; McCauley v. McElroy (Tex. Civ. App.) 199 S. W. 317; McCarroll v. Edwards (Tex. Civ. App.) 22 S.W.(2d) 684. Quoting from 38 Cyc. p. 483:

“So far as concerns the number of individuals who may be held responsible, torts are either single or joint. The class within which a particular instance of wrong may be placed depends in general, not upon the inherent nature of the tort itself, but upon the method of its accomplishment, for nearly every tort is susceptible of commission by one or many. Where different persons owe the same duty and their acts naturally tend to the same breach of that duty the wrong may be regarded as joint and both may be held liable.”

As by way of general illustration of the difference. In Markham v. Navigation Co., 73 Tex. 247, 11 S. W. 131, the injury to the plaintiff was caxised by a flagpole on the tugboat in which she was riding being caused to fall on the head of the plaintiff by striking against a rope stretched across the bayou by employees of the navigation company. The two wrongdoers were jointly liable as tort-feasors because the separate wrongful acts of the parties, of stretching the rope across the stream in direct line of navigation, and of negligent operation of the tug under the rope, could have caused injury to the plaintiff only when combined together. The negligent operation of the tug would not have 'produced the injury but for the rope being in the pathway of the tug. It took the combined acts of the wrongdoers to produce the injury, and but for the combined and concurrent wrongs of the two the injury would not have happened. The sole negligence of one of the defendants would not have caused the injury. In Economy Light & Power Co. v. Hiller, 203 Ill. 518, 68 N. E. 72, 73, the plaintiff was injured by contact with a broken telephone wire hanging across an electric light wire. The injury would not have happened by the sole negligence of one of the defendants. As stated by the court: “The evidence showed the common duty owing by both of the defendants to the public, resulting from the situation and proximity of the wires, and the use of the dangerous agent by the Economy Light & Power Company. The evidence tended to show a concurrent neglect of the common duty which rested upon both the defendants, and the negligence was joint in its character.” In Mercantile Bank & Trust Co. v. Schuhart, 115 Tex. 114, 277 S. W. 621, the Dalhart bank agreed to take and forward the draft and handle the collection and its correspondent undertook to perform that agreement. Neither bank was acting separately and for itself' alone in the method of accomplishing the undertaking. Each bank was under the same legal duty in respeet to the draft, and there was community of legal duty with respect to the owner of the draft. There was joint liability because the negligence of each bank tended ‘to the same breach of the common duty owing by them to the owner of the draft. In Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Mangum, 68 Tex. 342, 4 S. W. 617, the defendant Ginochio leased ground from the railroad company adjoining its depot and erected and maintained an eating house thereon, to which the company’s employees and passengers resorted for refreshment. The plaintiff received his injury by reason of a defective doorstep at the entrance of the eating house. The eating house was not managed or controlled by the railway company. There was not joint liability for the injury because there was not a common duty owing to the plaintiff on the part of both the defendants to keep in repair and well lighted the passageway, and as a consequence the negligence was not the joint or combined negligence of the two, but was the sole negligence of the defendant Ginochio, who was the owner of the defective steps or platform. Accordingly, under the definition and test stated above, it is believed the two codefendants in the present case could not be classed and regarded as joint tort feasors. The two defendants were operating separately owned motor vehicles, and there was no joint operation of the vehicles and no agency between the two defendants, and neither one had any control over the acts or the conduct of the other before or at the time, the injury occurred. According to the special circumstances, as set out in the findings of the court, the injury to the plaintiff was not caused by nor did it result through any combined negligence of the two defendants. The special circumstances reflect acts and conduct entirely separate and independent and wholly without any concert of action on the part of the two wrongdoers.

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Bluebook (online)
44 S.W.2d 784, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/houser-v-harris-texapp-1931.